(Vol. iii., p. 220.)
I am much obliged to your correspondent A. L. R. for his kind notice of my
pamphlet on Mesmerism, and equally so to yourself for inserting it; because
it gives me an opportunity of explaining to him, and others to whom I am
personally unknown, and who are therefore not aware of my circumstances and
movements, why the work was not continued without delay. In doing this I
will try to avoid trespassing on your goodness by one word of needless
egotism. In my Preface I described my materials as a "number of fragments
belonging to various ages and places," as "scattered facts and hints" which
I had met with in books which were not suspected of containing such matter;
and some of them books not likely to fall into the hands of anybody but a
librarian, or at least a person having access to a public library. It may
be easily understood that rough materials thus gathered were not fit for
{244} publication; and that, without the books from which they had been
"noted" and "queried," they could not be made so: and if I had anticipated
the course of events (notwithstanding an inducement which I will mention
presently), I should not have thought of publishing a Part I. But when I
sent it to the press, I had no idea that I should ever return here, or be
at an inconvenient distance from the libraries which were then within my
reach, and open to my use. As it was, I regretted that I had done so, and
felt obliged to hurry the pamphlet through the press, that I might pack up
these papers, and many other things more likely to be hurt by carriage, for
a residence an hundred miles off; and here they are _in statu quo_. I have
not attempted to do any thing with them, not only because I have been very
much occupied in other ways, but because I do not know that I could fit
them for publication without referring to some books to which I have not
access. At the same time I feel bound to add, that while I still think that
some of the things to which I refer might be worth printing, yet I do not
consider them so important as the matter which formed the subject of the
Part already published. I did think (and that was the inducement to which I
have already referred) that it was high time to call the attention of
disinterested and reflecting persons to the _facts_ alleged by mesmerists,
and to the _names_ by which they are attested. I have the satisfaction of
knowing that I have in some degree succeeded in this design. I may perhaps
some day find a channel for publishing the fragments alluded to; but in the
mean time, I shall be very glad if I can supply anything which your
correspondent may think wanting, or explain anything unintelligible in what
is published, if he will let me hear from him either with or without his
name. I am sorry to ask for so much space, knowing how little you have to
spare; but I cannot resist the temptation to offer an explanation, which
will be so widely circulated, and among such readers as I know this will
be, if you can find room for it.